School-age children who carry the AIDS virus present unique problems. This collection of linked narratives describes reactions from school boards, community leaders, health professionals and state legislatures that range from demands for exclusion from schools to acceptance. Beginning with the widely publicized case of Ryan White in Kokomo, Ind., in 1985, the cases reviewed here through 1987, in urban and rural communities, are replete with bigotry and compassion, ignorance and enlightenment. Kirp, professor of public policy at UC Berkeley, perceives these diverse cases as a metaphor for “how we govern ourselves,” particularly how life-and-death issues must be confronted in a democracy.